


due diligence

by Carrogath



Series: together, coming apart [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26177476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrogath/pseuds/Carrogath
Summary: Something goes right, for once.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Mercedes von Martritz
Series: together, coming apart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901020
Kudos: 30





	due diligence

The meetings that morning had been banal, inefficacious, the sky as seen through the palace windows a drab, washed-out gray as to mirror the inerrant dullness of the day’s affairs. Edelgard languished in her seat, joints stiff and aching; she had barely moved for the past three hours, and her mouth was dry and her back was sore and her body refused to do whatever it was commanded. She did, with some effort, manage to push herself out of her seat and upright. Hubert was at her side with a hot towel and a glass of water on a tray in an instant.

“Your Majesty?”

She drank the water and ignored the towel. Moisture collected on the surface of the glass and seeped through the cloth of her gloves. Horsebow Moon was supposed to mark the end of the rainy season, but today, it seemed, the rain wouldn’t let up.

Her neck cracked. “Remind me when I’m supposed to meet with the new Bishop of Fhirdiad?”

“In two hours, Your Majesty. Your luncheon today is free.”

“For now,” she said, with a wry smile. She picked up the towel, and, after a moment’s hesitation, pressed it against the bare skin of her neck. As soon as it touched, the tension in her shoulders began to dissipate. “I’m forgetting someone.”

Hubert was quiet.

Once Edelgard realized his silence was intentional, she remembered who it was.

She folded the towel in her hands. “If you won’t tell me, then perhaps you should stop insisting on tracking her movements.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that.”

“You forget yourself.”

Hubert smiled and bowed deeply as she placed the towel back onto the tray. “Your safety is my priority, Your Majesty.”

“Not my will?”

“I believe it is in your best interests to allow me to continue to protect you.” Edelgard looked at him. He sighed. “ _And_ her.” In a rare display of frustration, he moved the tray to his non-dominant hand and massaged the bridge of his nose. “You will conduct yourself with the utmost propriety while she is here. Lest your shamelessness ruin our fragile alliances and invalidate the precious treaties which you have worked so tirelessly to forge.”

“It was once.”

“It was enough.” Hubert’s chilling, one-eyed glare would have cowed anyone else. Edelgard took it in stride. “I speak only for the Empire when I tell you this. My own opinion matters not.” He closed his eyes. “More has been destroyed for the sake of less.” Then he opened them and looked at her. “Please mind yourself around her, Your Majesty. No one else can be made aware of your incivilities.”

* * *

Edelgard was halfway down the hall when a familiar pair of footsteps began to echo behind her.

“Miss me?” Her veil brushed Edelgard’s cheek.

“Did I feel the weight of your absence?” asked Edelgard. “I suppose so. But did I long for the return of your presence?”

Her visitor fell into step beside her, close to her side but without warmth, like a particularly persistent spirit. “Did I haunt you?”

The word escaped her tongue. “Always.”

“What’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, softly.

“Nothing important,” said Edelgard. “Nothing that matters.”

“You don’t think I’d be interested in knowing?”

“I know you wouldn’t be.”

“Perhaps you’re right. Better to be honest than to pretend that your words would mean anything to me… Edelgard.”

“Mm?”

“You haven’t looked me in the face this whole time.”

Edelgard stopped and looked up.

“There,” said Mercedes, looking down. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Edelgard tried to bite back a churlish response, and failed. “You’re cruel,” she said.

“You would call me ‘cruel?’”

“You’re right.”

“I’m not a ghost, Edelgard. I can’t curse you if you look at me.”

Edelgard grew rigid, backing toward the wall.

“Maybe I should just leave.” Mercedes took a step back.

Edelgard grabbed her wrist. “Don’t.”

She sighed and relented, slipping her hand out of Edelgard’s grasp. “‘Two hours,’ is what I was told.”

“Yes,” Edelgard replied petulantly, pressing herself against the wall. “Only two.”

“And how were you thinking of spending those?”

“In ways none of which would benefit you to know, I should think,” she said with a grin. “You might imagine them.”

“I might,” said Mercedes. Her face was unreadable. “Or, I might offer some ideas of my own.”

“Fancy that, having any ideas of your own.”

Mercedes smirked and looked away. “You’re terrible.”

Edelgard glanced around. The hallway was empty. “I love you.”

She leaned in. “Do you know what’s in this hallway, Edelgard?”

She ran a hand over her hair. “Empty meeting rooms, mostly. Oh, and facing west is…” _The chapel._

“That’s right,” said Mercedes. “It’s the palace chapel.”

“You’re not going to make me go inside?” replied Edelgard, breathless. “You do remember what happened last time the both of us were in a church?”

“Well,” she said, “yes, but did you want to go inside?”

“No!” Edelgard stood up. “Why would I want to go inside a church with you?”

“If you love me,” said Mercedes, “then you must love the Church.”

“That isn’t how it works.”

“Then there must be some reason we keep meeting like this.”

She bit down on the inside of her lip. “I’m not ready.”

“It’s just a room, Edelgard.”

“It is not ‘just a room.’”

Mercedes huffed in frustration. She turned to look at the unassuming double doors that led into the chapel. “I would go with you, if you were willing.”

“Mercedes.”

“Are you worried we won’t have enough time for sex?” Edelgard blushed. “I can make it quick.”

“The sex or the visit to the chapel?”

“Whichever you prefer.”

She ran a hand over her face in mortification. “Why are you like this.”

“It’s important to me.”

“You know how I feel about the Goddess.”

“And you know how I feel.” Mercedes took a step back again. “We don’t have to go.”

“Oh, I know what’s going to happen if I refuse.”

Mercedes smiled wickedly. “The more time you spend arguing with me, the less time we’ll have together, you know.”

Edelgard grasped her hand. “But what if I’m not ready?”

Mercedes squeezed back. “Then we leave, and we can try again next time.”

* * *

What should have been a five second walk to the chapel doors felt more like five minutes, or, if Edelgard were to be honest with herself, five _hours_. Time expanded, slowed, and then finally came to a halt as they stopped in front of the doors. They were always unlocked. The chalices and precious objects had been housed in the treasury ever since Edelgard had assumed the throne, so there was no reason for the additional security. In fact, if she had been less occupied with other matters, she thought, she might have melted them all down into bullion by now.

“Well?” Mercedes looked at her.

Edelgard tried the handle. She could feel herself perspiring through her clothes. Mercedes’s gaze bore holes into her head. She pressed down and pushed the door open, keeping her head firmly down as she stepped inside. Mercedes entered the chapel behind her.

“Now, look up.”

She did, albeit not without a grunt of exertion. There were pews, and the Crest of Seiros painted on the whitewashed wall adjacent to them. No altar, as was customary for the Central Church. Sconces unlit. Two windows at either side of the painted Crest let in weak sunlight. There were two storage closets to her left. The floor was typical stone. No carpet. It was plain. There was nothing.

“See?” Mercedes asked. “Not so bad.”

“Oh,” said Edelgard. “It’s awful.”

“But why?”

Edelgard turned around, so that the Crest of Seiros was out of her view. “It just is. Don’t you hate it?”

“Of course I don’t,” she said.

“But don’t you hate it when I’m here?”

This time, her response was less immediate. “I don’t hate it when you’re here.”

Her voice was tight. “I don’t know what it is with you and this, but I really don’t want to be here right now.”

Mercedes walked past her, closer to the Crest. “Then can you give me ten minutes? I’d like to pray.”

Edelgard swallowed. Then she surprised herself: she stepped forward, and said, “Let me sit with you.”

“Oh?” Mercedes sat down in the second pew from the front, to their left.

Edelgard sat down beside her. Her heart was pounding. She watched, mutely, as Mercedes pulled down the kneeler and knelt down against it, and put her hands together and began to pray.

And then it was silent, and Edelgard’s palms were cold and clammy through her gloves, and every fiber of her being was screaming at her to stand up and leave.

She sat. She clenched her teeth. She sweated through her clothes. She was going to be disgusting before Mercedes even got her hands on her, and she hated herself for it. Ten minutes. _Two hours_ , she reminded herself.

“I can’t concentrate as long as you look so uncomfortable to be here.” Mercedes glared at her.

“I can’t help it.” She shut her eyes. “You know why I don’t enjoy being here. It has… I have nothing against your devotion to the Goddess. I just don’t want to be here.”

“Then leave. You tried. It’s enough.”

“It’s not enough.”

“Edelgard.”

She pulled her gloves off and left them beside her on the seat of the pew, and sighed into her hands. “Just trying isn’t enough. You know that.”

“It’s not going to go well every time,” said Mercedes. She stood up from the kneeler and then sat back down on the pew.

“But it has to.” Edelgard laughed dryly. “I can’t make the same mistake twice.” She looked out toward the windows and the dreary gray sky. “Hubert’s going to have my head. Dorothea, too. If it doesn’t go perfectly, then why bother attempting at all? I might as well tie the noose around my neck now and save all my enemies the trouble of trying to kill me first.”

“Well, I don’t know how we went from entering a church to letting your enemies kill you.”

“Why do you keep coming back?” Edelgard stared at her. “Really? Where do you see the good in this relationship?”

Mercedes’s eyes looked oddly damp. “You don’t want this anymore?”

“Not like this. Not the way it is now.” She rubbed her arms and shuddered.

“That’s why we’re trying.”

“You remember what happened the last time we were in a church,” said Edelgard, quietly.

Mercedes was silent.

“Don’t make me say it.”

“You could have asked permission, first.”

Edelgard laughed.

“We did go somewhere more private, afterward,” said Mercedes.

“You kept saying ‘yes.’”

“I did. Does that still bother you?”

“You always say ‘yes.’”

“Do you think I’m lying?”

“You lie all the time.” Edelgard looked away. “I’m not even sure you know how to be honest with yourself anymore.”

“I was just being stubborn.”

Edelgard blinked. “Pardon?”

Mercedes laughed. “About praying, I mean. I was being stubborn. I don’t think I could ever pray when you’re in the room. My thoughts are far too impure.”

“Then why did you…”

“Because we’re the same,” said Mercedes, and cupped her face with both hands and kissed her once, and then again, and then a third time. “I don’t want to be here right now. Nor do you. I would much rather be in the bedroom with all of our clothes off, believe me.” Tears slid down her face. “I just don’t know how to ask.” Her hands shook. “So I do the opposite of what I want to do, and then I _wait_ for you to take me!”

Edelgard swallowed hard. “Wh… Mer—”

Mercedes kissed her again and pulled away. She leaned back against the hard wood of the pew. “I know you can’t help yourself. I know you will, eventually, because you enjoy seeing me break. And I love falling apart under your touch. It feels so incredibly freeing. But you never knew that, did you?” Mercedes looked at her.

She wet her lips.

Then she looked away again. Her head lolled to the side. “Stop blaming yourself for what you did.”

Her mouth felt very dry. She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“Mercedes.”

“Yes?”

“Are we done here? I need to get out of these clothes.” She laughed. “I mean it. I can’t show my face to the Bishop of Fhirdiad like this.”

* * *

Edelgard’s voice was hoarse by the time she found the strength to speak. The curtains in the bedroom were drawn, though slivers of light still peeked through the gaps between them. The old grandfather clock ticked its way menacingly to 12:45.

“Two hours,” she said, and laughed. “Sothis.”

Somewhere beside her, Mercedes was tangled up in the sheets, still panting for breath. “You’ll be late.”

“I don’t care. Nothing’s going to get done today, anyway. Not after that.” She pressed her arm over her eyes. “I was supposed to eat around this time, you know.”

“I’d say you already did, in fact.”

Edelgard swatted her loosely on the arm. “Not like that! I don’t have time for this. Goddess. I don’t even have any time to bathe… I’m a mess; I just…”

“Cancel, maybe?” Mercedes suggested.

“Oh, yes,” said Edelgard, “cancel because I’m too busy having sex with my unofficial lover. It’s a perfectly valid excuse, to be sure.”

“You have an official one?”

“For certain… diplomatic purposes, it’s Dorothea,” Edelgard murmured. “She bears the brunt of it in exchange for everyone being able to see one another. We do a lot to protect your identity, come to think of it… One of the other things I suppose you never knew.”

“You have your reasons for choosing not to disclose everything,” said Mercedes, stroking Edelgard’s arm.

“Yes, and look at what happens as a result,” she groused. “I suppose my administration was never known for its transparency.”

“That could change.”

“Unlikely.”

Mercedes began to trace her scars. “You don’t think so?”

“You’re doing it again.” Edelgard slid her arm off of her face and looked at her.

“Doing what?”

“Equivocating.”

“Was I?”

Edelgard sighed. “Never mind.”

Mercedes rolled over onto her knees and straddled her, breasts huge and swaying. “You can’t cancel?”

There was a knock on the door.

“It’s probably Hubert,” Edelgard muttered, “the only man in the country who wouldn’t admit he’d be embarrassed to walk in on us.”

“He’d barge in.”

“He only doesn’t because he knows how you’d react.”

“How?”

Edelgard looked to the side. “Allow me to answer the door, please?”

“Only if you answer my question.”

“Which?”

Mercedes shrugged.

“I’ll tell him there was an… unplanned disruption. To be addressed immediately.” Edelgard nudged Mercedes off, and felt for her slip and her robe somewhere on the floor. She dressed in pure and unadulterated languor.

“And then?”

Edelgard stood up. “Your call.” She tossed her a look over her shoulder as she headed for the door. “The rest of my day is free.”

“Is it?”

Edelgard smiled as she opened the door. Hubert’s figure loomed over her. She beckoned him inside and then bade him lean over so she could whisper in his ear, one eye trained on Mercedes as she gauged Mercedes’s reaction.

Hubert straightened up. “Is that so?” His face betrayed no hint of emotion. “I see. That is quite distressing,” he said, his voice even. “I’ll ensure the Bishop is made aware of this news at once. I am sure he could be made amicable to a change in schedule. Now if you’ll pardon me,” he stepped back, “it seems that my day has become quite the eventful one.” His gaze flickered toward the bed. “Enjoy your rest, Your Majesty.”

When he left, Edelgard locked the door behind him and crawled back into bed. “Now it is.”

“You don’t think that was a little hard on him?” asked Mercedes, sitting up.

“What do you think he does when I’m ill?”

“I know the answer to that one,” she said. “You’re never ill.”

“Maybe he’ll finally learn to ask for time off,” said Edelgard. “To inconvenience me, if nothing else.”

“He’s not that petty.”

“You don’t know anything about him.”

“True,” said Mercedes, pushing Edelgard’s robe off of her shoulders. “Now, where were we, again?”

“Wherever you want to be,” Edelgard replied.

“You’ll regret saying that.” The robe fell to the floor.

Mercedes guided her onto her back.

“I could never.”

At some point the clock chimed one, and then one-thirty, and then two. They ignored it all.


End file.
